Prison Ministry, Clementia Association
Lebanon is facing one of the world’s greatest economic crashes in the past 200 years. As the economic struggles continue in Lebanon, it has become nearly impossible for people to find the basic medical supplies that they need. In response, FAIR is supporting the medical care ministry of Fellowship International missionaries Bechara and Roula Karkafi and their partners this spring through the Lebanon Medical Care initiative. Below is a story from Bechara and Roula about one of the ministries they oversee at the Roumieh Prison in Lebanon.
We started the ministry in Roumieh Prison after we realized the great need there, which was medical supplies. With the economic crisis Lebanon is witnessing, it has become so hard to find medication for critical cases. Even if the medication is found, it would be very expensive and the families of prisoners can’t afford it. As a result, seven prisoners have died because no one provided medicine for them. Roumieh Prison is the main prison in Lebanon that currently holds up to 7,000 prisoners while it was only built to hold up to 2,000 prisoners. Imagine the hardship and the great need for medication after overloading the rooms. The main medical drugs needed: skin medicine because of skin diseases that are highly contagious. Another need is diabetes and heart medicines. The government doesn’t have the ability or capacity to provide medications for this high number of prisoners, even the World Health Organization stopped providing the prisoners with medicine after the crisis began. The Lord blessed us to be the only ministry that was able to provide and continue providing medication for this prison. This led to great connections with the commanders of the prison who were so open to our help and welcomed our presence among the prisoners. The need is still great for medication, but God always provides. This ministry has opened great doors for us to share Jesus with many prisoners whom we support with medications. We are continuously praying for more and new doors for many to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
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Join us in praying that these prisoners and many people in Lebanon would find their hope in Jesus as they also receive the medical care support that they need.